I enjoyed the art of Donato Giancola for quite a while before I could name to the work I liked. It's harder to peg his work as his when you look at it since it changes in style from painting to painting, cover to cover -- which is required for a popular illustrator/artist. But, there is sort of a grandeur as if your looking at one of those huge-fill-the-wall-paintings of an old master in a museum even when it's a book cover.

Once again, Donato has been nominated for a Hugo in the Best Professional Artist category and we're hoping to interview him before voting ends. However, having been to his website and looking at his FAQ, the real challenge will be not to bore him with my questions.

UPDATE NOTE: Okay, confession time -- I'm on the last day of the month and I never did get the courage to contact Donato since just about everything is covered by his FAQ. So here's an interview that SFRevu correspondent Wendy Mitchell did with him in 1999. I've added his recent cover for The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. Enjoy. - Gayle

The Incredible Shrinking Man
by Richard Matheson

Widowmaker Unleashed
by Mike Resnick

SF Artist:
Donato Giancola - interview by Wendy MitchellThis month we present an interview with Donato Giancola, an award winning
artist who paints with incredible technical precision. Donato has nominations for two
Chesley awards this year. Since receiving his BFA from The College of Visual and
Performing Arts at Syracuse University in 1992, he has been very busy indeed. His list of
published work is impressive, and he's just getting started. - Wendy Mitchell

SFR) How and when did you get started on art as a career?

Donato Giancola) My art career began the day I was born. Looking back
through the years, I see that most of my free time as a child was devoted to creating
objects (toys, models, and utilitarian items) and drawing fantastical images. It wasn't
until I enrolled at Syracuse University in 1989 that I began to take painting and drawing
as a serious future profession.

SFR) Have you always done Science Fiction
art?

DG) My Science Fiction career began with Star Wars and developed with much
of those genre movies of the late 70's and 80's. My love of picture making as a small boy
expressed itself though the depiction of World War II imagery in pencil, markers and
models, inspired by my father's and uncle's military service in the 50's. The love of
fantasy in movies fueled other interests in comics, role playing games, and literature.

SFR) You started your college career in engineering, how did you end up painting?

DG) A few engineering courses I was enrolled in during my sophomore year proved to
be very frustrating, uninspiring and foreshadowed for me the boring and creativeless
future I saw as a corporate engineer. I dropped out of three of these courses in
mid-semester and proceeded to experiment with my hobby of drawing by taking a drawing
class the next semester. A VERY risky maneuver that I would not recommend anyone at home
trying without appropriate adult supervision; I had no idea what tremendous odds were
against me in pursuing a successful lifestyle in the art market. After watching the
attrition rate of my fellow students and graduates over the years, I think I should have
remained an engineer.

DG) I have always enjoyed detailed renderings. The objective nature of Scientific
study with examination of all elements of a problem with equal light is reflected in my
treatment of the surface of the paintings as a unified graphic field. The bolts of a
doorway in a corner carry as much weight as the eyes of the main figure (well, almost).

SFR) You have won many awards, including a Chesley. How do you find that this has
helped your career?

DG) Awards are a great by-product of creating paintings that have an integrity all
their own. I will never create a work solely for the merit of an award. I am pleased that
so many other artists and people have enjoyed my work over these few short years, but I
would be creating the same paintings even without the praise of my peers. Awards bestow
recognition upon work that has already achieved a high degree of quality, but in the same
breath, these awards pass over many other great paintings/images by other artists. I am
always flattered to receive the honor of an award like the Chesleys.

SFR) What are your current Chesley nominations for?

DG) I have two Chesley nominations. One for a packaging art painting of an
archangel for Wizards of the Coast and the second of a hard cover wrap around for Barbara
Hambly's IceFalcon's Quest.

SFR) Who do you like to work for, and why?

DG) I prefer to create paintings for clients who allow me total creative freedom
with characters, costumes and environments. I am currently developing my own Science
Fiction universe of imagery and am attempting to keep all rights to these images for
future use. Tor books has been wonderful to work with these past two years and by
bestowing this level of freedom, they are receiving the absolute best of my abilities. I
will devote extra long hours to their projects because of this.

SFR) What is your favorite piece you have done, and why?

DG) I have no favorite painting that stands above the rest. Each image is like
working through a problem, with little steps of enlightenment along the way. I can find
elements of high merit for myself in over 50% of my work. I'll let you decide which is
your favorite, but you can see twelve of mine on my website (www.donatoart.com).

SFR) Do you only paint for assignments, or do you paint for yourself as well?

DG) The constraints of being a successful professional has greatly limited my
production of non-commissioned work since my graduation in 1992. When and if I do find a
free hour, my love of Science, early hominids, and space exploration draw me into their
worlds.

SFR) Who are your favorite artists, in SF as well as the "real world?"

DG) I couldn't possibly list all the influences I have been exposed to over the
years as a developing and evolving artist. To make a list of contemporary Science Fiction
artists would be treacherous as I would probably omit someone of great importance and
forever place my name on their punching bag! It doesn't matter anyway, because my true
love lies outside the art of commercial illustration and in the world of the museums:
Carravaggio, Hans Membling, Van Eyck, the Limbourg Brothers, Velazquez, Modrian, Titian,
Rubens, Vermeer, Ingres, Rembrandt, Correggio, Botticelli, Bellini, Desiderio, Goya, Van
der Weyden, and Bosch.

SFR) Are you interested in Science Fiction beyond the art?

DG) Outside of the fantastical nature of the art I create, I am drawn to the
aspects of Science Fiction that pertain to extrapolated real science: Jupiter moon probes,
search and speculation of other planetary systems, early human social organization,
etc… This is where I focus my leisure reading and research.

SFR) What books, movies, TV, magazines, games, etc. do you like?

DG) I watch little TV and when I do it is usually Science or English mystery
programming on PBS or soccer on Sunday afternoon. I am brushing up on reading the classics
that I was never exposed to as an art educated painter. Currently my favorite writer is
Dostoyevsky. The same is true on my musical tastes, but they tend to the more modern with
minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. I prefer to attend performances at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music and watch art house films.

This may sound like an elitist cultural menu, but rather, I like to engage in any
activity that will spark my imagination in a way that is divergent from the norm. As a
Science Fiction artist it is my responsibility to provide my viewers with new and
outlandish solutions to centuries old human problems. I find that by studying only the
genre will lead to incestuous use of imagery. By searching and exposing my senses to
foreign and unfamiliar material I hope to inject something new and creative into Science
Fiction art.

SFR) Do you collect art, or anything else?

I am working on some trades with other artists now, but I still haven't gotten rich
enough to afford many of my friends' paintings yet.

SFR) Is your art collectible?

DG) I put as much integrity into my work as humanly possible for an illustrator. I
value my original paintings well above their use as a commercial illustration commission,
for this reason I place hours of professional craftsmanship in each piece. If you love
original paintings, I hope you might appreciate what I do with mine.

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